Gold of Courage and Red of Blood
by Sogni Seri
Summary: HP7 Spoilers. What went on at Hogwarts while Harry, Ron and Hermione were away? Through the eyes of the boy who stepped up to the plate as leader  Neville Longbottom
1. All Aboard

_**Gold of Courage and Red of Blood**_

Before any of you tale-thirsty, story-seeking wanderers venture into the depths of this developing story, let it be known to you that you may tread of treacherous path. The contents of this chronicle-in-the-making may hold a bit of spoilers for those of you not fully updated on the full novels written by none other than J.K. Rowling. Be forewarned.

Also, I do not tolerate unconstructive criticism within my stories. If you have a problem with what or how I write, please speak it with dignified grace and manners that would perhaps assist me in knowing how I may fix it to my viewers liking. And be kind to all others around you.

Please keep in mind I have only read the seventh book once as of now, and it has been a little bit since I read the previous novels, but I am trying to keep this as much to Rowling's liking as I can. If I make a mistake, it was an honest mistake and I would like for someone to inform me kindly of what I did wrong and I will do my best to correct it. (P.S. I use this as a disclaimer that I do not own the Harry Potter books whatsoever - I wish - and this is merely written off of the works of J.K. Rowling)

_(In other words:_

_-HP7 Spoilers_

_-Please kindly correct me if I make a mistake)_

Thank you! Now, for the teaser:

_**All Aboard**_

He gazed out the window, absent, swarmed in his own thoughts. What were they going to do? What could they do? Harry Potter was not coming back to school and, as far as he knew Ron nor Hermione either. Who would protect them? How could they stand up to the evils weaving blindfolds over all higher powers?

Neville groaned and ran a hand through his hair. They would have to do something; that much he knew.

"What do you think it'll be like?" said a blond-haired girl sitting across from him – Luna Lovegood – "having Professor Snape as our headmaster now?"

Neville's attentiveness and sense seeped slowly back into his body and he turned to her. He shrugged and shifted in his seat. It was odd, he always remembered the cushy seats on the Hogwarts Express to be magnificently comfortable, but now they just felt stiff and made his body ache. It was as if his body was making itself known that it agreed with his mind: He did not want to go back to Hogwarts this year.

"What do you think is going to happen? What are we going to do?" she was asking all the same questions that befuddled Neville's brain. He supposed she was just trying to get them out of her head to keep herself from going insane. Maybe it was a good idea.

"The only thing I know is it's going to be difficult. And, we're going to have to do something. I don't know what," he added, as Luna looked about to question again, "just…something. Something to stop it. Or, at least, delay it until Harry can come and help us."

"Do you think he will?" Neville looked at her and almost smiled at the fierce glint in her eyes that said to him she had no doubts he would. Neville didn't either.

"Yes," he said truthfully, "but I don't know when. I think the real question is, who will take charge and make sense of the mess of lies while he's gone?"

Luna leaned forward a bit, to look into Neville's eyes which had turned toward the floor is a small hint of dismay. She spoke kindly, but with a matter-of-fact tone.

"You could."


	2. What Can We Do?

_**What Can we Do?**_

Neville had gazed stupidly at her a moment, and had opened his mouth to argue with that fact when the compartment door slid open and two figures entered the small section, closing the door behind them. Neville turned his head to focus on who their guests were.

"Well?" asked Luna, after a moment of hesitation from either party, "who did you find?"

Ginny sat down beside Luna, and Seamus who had entered after her sat across from her, beside Neville.

"Well, I didn't really stare into the other compartments for enough time to see who was actually coming back to Hogwarts, it would have looked dodgy." She stated, "But I did run into Seamus, here, wandering along in the halls…the Patils are here, but it was a little too difficult to distinguish everyone else…"

Ginny looked momentarily dismayed at her meek reportings on who was returning to Hogwarts this year.

"Does it matter, really?" Neville piped up, "Apparently everyone is required to come back to Hogwarts." A small wave of nods from his comrades showed a general acknowledgement of this information. Seamus leaned back in the seat, grimacing.

"Can you actually believe that that git of a potions professor was appointed Headmaster?"

Seamus' question apparently had struck up a grumbling conversation about things already going wrong before the year started, but Neville was not paying attention. Once again his mind drifted off elsewhere in its endless ocean of undistinguishable doubts, fears, angers and hopes. Could _he_, Neville Longbottom, have courage enough to lead any of those who felt this treatment and tactic of running Hogwarts was horrifically unfair. Who would follow him? All he'd ever been able to accomplish over the past six years at this school was that he was a clumsy, forgetful git of a man with an abnormal fascination for everything herbology. It frightened him to even present anything outside of herbology, how could he ever lead-

"What do you think, Neville?" Ginny's eyes, as well as two other pairs, were focused on him. Obviously he had just been asked a question, and once again began stumbling over his words in losing his nerve under the piercing gazes.

"I – uh…I – what?"

"What do you think can be done? I mean, we aren't just going to let the Dark Lord take over our school – our _home_ – Are we?"

That question again. As if they expected him to step up and declare himself the new Harry Potter. The new leader who would take them all to great victory in the defeat of the Dark Lord. That's right, he would be fearless, determined, and as cunning as Harry Potter with his virtuous friends at his side. No, not he. Not dear little Neville. Neville looked down at his hands, feigning deep contemplation as the frown of frustration and resentment stole over his face. He would never be like Harry Potter, how could they think him so?

"I don't know. I guess we'll just have to."

He turned his entire upper body away from them, staring gloomily out the window to the trees and fields whizzing past them. There was a moment of tense silence before Ginny broke it with a slow response.

"I'll…go…and look through the compartments again. If anyone asks, I'll say I wanted to stretch my legs."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny stand and stretch her arms above her head. He then felt Seamus stand beside him.

"I'll go, too. I'll look into the compartments so people might not have to ask."

A few muffled steps, the sound of oiled metal gliding along another metal track, the sound of the click as the door clasped shut again, and then he was alone with Luna once more. Neville didn't look, but he could tell Luna was looking at him. He could feel her disappointment or perhaps anger or perhaps just…it didn't matter. He could feel her eyes on him. He heard her shuffle closer to the edge of her seat.

"And why not?"

He didn't have to ask what she meant.

"Because I'm not Harry Potter."

"Well, besides that. None of us are, and to be honest I'm quite satisfied with that. I'm content with who I am."

Neville finally turned to her. It surprised him slightly to find neither disappointment nor anger in her gaze, but rather genuine curiosity and a small disbelief. Not disbelief in him, but what he was saying.

"I'm not a leader. I can't be brave like that, I can't stand up and guide people like that. It's…just…I don't have that kind of courage."

He looked at her sorrowfully, he simply couldn't fit whatever image of him she had made in her mind. But her eyes didn't change, they didn't even falter.

"Odd…"

"What? What is?"

"Well…you're a Gryffindor, aren't you?"

At that moment, there was a knock at the compartment door and it slid open once again. There was a tray so large, it filled the entire doorway, and the sweet little voice echoing into their compartment was the only sign of the stout little witch it belonged to.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Luna's eyes then grew wide with her childish manner of excitement.

"Ooh! Yes, please!"

Luna stood and began to list off a few things that she saw from the cart, but Neville didn't pay attention. Her words seem to just get through to him, just seeped through his thick skull and enwrapped themselves around his brain, lighting it ablaze. They almost stung.

_You're a Gryffindor, aren't you?_

Yes…that he was. But he couldn't decide if that gave him more courage and confidence, or if it simply stole it away in a feeling that he brought shame upon his house.

Luna had returned to her seat, offering Neville a cauldron cake. He took it, deciding he had had enough of baffling questions and emotions swimming through his head, and Luna seemed to either feel the same or sensed how he felt. She began talking about the newest breed of mystical creature she and her father caught a glimpse of over the summer. A Deafliodack Snitsorbeack, she said.

Neville smiled and listened, going along with her little tale in not completely false enthusiasm. He was glad to talk of something else. And when Ginny and Seamus returned, this time with Dean Thomas in tow also, Luna wouldn't allow them to tell of their findings (not that there was much of a change from before). She continued telling of this new creature and its relations with other mystical or unidentifiable creatures. She spoke all the way until the train began to screech distantly and slow. They were arriving at Hogwarts.

"And, of course, the fact it has a long, thin tail makes it painfully obvious of its long extinct ancestor, the –"

"Oh!" Ginny exclaimed, "we've forgotten to put on our robes!"

Neville, Dean, Seamus and Luna all exchanged hurried glances, and they began searching for their robes stuffed in with their bags, purses or sitting beside them on the seat.

"You girls change first; we'll wait in the corridor…" Dean said politely, and Ginny and Luna gave him an appreciative smile.

The boys stood in silence outside the compartment, Neville staring at his feet.

"You know what?" Dean said cautiously, after a long length. The two boys looked at him from either side. "I'm almost scared to step back in there. I never thought I'd say it, but I am."

Seamus and Neville exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement.

"The day a witch or wizard is hesitant to step through the doors to Hogwarts with a larger fear than simple pre-school anxiety, you know a dark time has fallen…" Seamus spoke solemnly. All Neville could manage was another nod.

The compartment door slid open behind them, and the girls stepped out to let the boys change. Finally, they all sat within the compartment, once more in a tense silence. Neville wished Luna would continue with her tale of the Deafliodack Snitsorbeack. He thought desperately to think of something to say, something to encourage a more cheery atmosphere, but it was a lot harder than it seemed. Just as Neville was about to say the most random thing he could think of, the train jerked to a halt and students began filing out.

They all looked at one another, the fear and dread apparent on everyone's face.

"Let's all stay together, okay?" Ginny almost pleaded, like a child not wanting her parents to leave her bed in the midst of a thunderstorm.

"Agreed." Neville said quietly, and they all exited the compartment, being sure to catch up if someone slipped in between them. Finally, they came up to the carriages and all clambered into one.

"Here we go…" Luna said as if they were about to go on one of the world's fastest and tallest amusement park rides. It wasn't at all funny, but for some reason they all looked around at each other and began to laugh.


End file.
